Learning to Swim
People of any age can learn to swim. The hardest part of learning to swim is building confidence. It's easy to lack confidence concerning an activity that you are not used to or do not know how to do. Build your confidence by relaxing and learning skills one step at a time. Don't rush yourself. Everyone learns at different speeds. Swimming can be difficult to learn alone. Seek additional help from a friend or trained professional.
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Instructions
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Adjust yourself to the water. Start your swimming lesson at a shallow end of a pool. Make sure that you can touch the bottom and that the water isn't higher than your bust. Practice wading or treading water. Place your arms in front of you and push through the water with your hands. You hands should move forward and out from your body in a half-circle motion and then come back toward you. After you have mastered this, pick your feet up from the bottom of the pool and kick out and around. When performed simultaneously, you will be successfully treading water.
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Hold your breath under water. Take a deep breath before you go under and stick you head under the water. Some people need to hold their nose. If this is the case, you should invest in a nose plug. Hold your breath as long as you can and come up for air when you need to. Try repeatedly so that you get comfortable with sticking your head under the water.
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Practice the back float. Take a deep breath and puff out your chest. Lay back on the water as if it was a bed. This is back floating. Kick your feet to move your body if you wish to do so. You also can use your arms to help propel you through the water.
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Learn your basic swimming strokes. You are best to learn these from a trained professional. Most YMCA's offer adult and child swimming lessons. It's important to learn these strokes correctly so that you can become the best swimmer that you can be. Two of the most common swimming strokes are the freestyle and the breaststroke. Swimming strokes are most effective when you use proper breathing techniques along with the methods that you are taught. These strokes can enable you to swim long distances.
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References
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